Stiller, Gervais & Azaria Talk Night at the Museum 2

18 May 2009

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Night at the Museum was a worldwide smash in 2006 when it grossed over $574 at the global box office. But with a nice tied up and happy ending to hear that Ben Stiller and co were back for a second film Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian came as a bit of a surprise.

When the Museum of Natural History is closed for a refit, its exhibits are wrapped up and shipped off to the legendary Smithsonian Institute in Washington - home of Al Capone's mug shot, Fonzie's jacket from Happy Days and a few million other priceless items.

In hot pursuit is Larry Daley (Stiller), who's been sent to keep an eye on his magical museum archive. It's business as usual for the hapless Larry as he tries (and fails) to keep his unruly exhibits under control.

Ben Stiller, Ricky Gervais and new boy Hank Azaria all descended on Claridges Hotel to discuss returning to the franchise, new characters and what lies ahead. 

- There’s a very sweet line in the film ‘happiness is doing what you love with people that you love’ and I was wondering if the three of you endorsed that and if so why did you still go ahead and make this movie?

Stiller: Yeah definitely that was the idea behind the movie we had to find a way to start the second movie, because everything was so happy at the end of the first movie, we had to figure out the problem to start the next one with. The idea that Larry becomes successful and all the problems that come with success, that has drawn him away from his true happiness, success doesn’t necessarily mean happiness.

Gervais: I did it for the movie.

Azaria: If you are asking me if I’m in love with Ben and Ricky then the answer is yes and I did fall in love with them through the course of filming.

- Ricky I wondered if you had asked Carl Pilkington for his insight into the prospect of the museum coming alive at night, I think the whole surreal premise would suit him.

No he would say ‘it’s a bit weird isn’t it’ and that would be it. We did an audio book recently about the English for St. George’s Day and Carl was annoyed that St George was a saint because that if he was around today and he killed a dragon he would have PETA on at him everyone would say why did you kill that dragon.

And I said to him that the dragon was metaphorical he said ‘What’ and I said that there wasn’t a real dragon and said: ‘you don’t believe in dragons but you believe in dinosaurs?’ Well yeah because there is fossil evidence so it wouldn’t faze him at all.

- Hank I was just wondering how many voices you settled on before going with the one that you did, for the Thinker as well?

The Thinker was definitely written to be stupid and the thing about Abraham Lincoln I did temporary versions on them on set, just so we had something to animate to, and they ended up using them.  We tried a bunch of different things and Abraham Lincoln was hard because you had to be reverential but also make him funny so the dignified ones weren’t funny and the funny ones were too silly.

I got kind of addicted to recording Abraham Lincoln I never wanted to stop and I wanted to keep going and Shaun would say ‘no you are cut off that’s enough it worked it’s fine.’

We tried a bunch of different versions of the Kahmunrah I did five or six for a camera test and then right at the end, for a joke, I was like ‘what about Boris Karloff he would have been a good mummy if he was still alive?’ I still can’t believe they actually used that.

- How do you feel about Night at the Museum 3 if all goes well with this does it get any bigger than the Smithsonian?

Stiller:  I think, I don’t know, the second one we had to figure out a reason why the movie would happen, and I felt that we really figured that out.  The third one, the idea of doing a third one is great it would be really fun, it would just be having to figure out something that would sustain itself and there are a couple of ideas floating around if people want to see a third one.  Working with these guys again would be great but I don’t think it’s getting bigger but just different.

Gervais: Just a normal museum where nothing comes to life an it’s all about the admin, just naturalise it a little but more.

- Working in a museum at night is quite a boring job so before you got into acting what kind of jobs did you have that were quite dull or what part-time jobs did you have when you were younger?

Stiller:  I was a bus boy and a waiter, a really bad waiter and bad bus boy, I waited on Dudley Moore once and I was really interested in what he was saying and I kept coming over, and I think I annoyed him.

Gervais: Why, because you were hovering? (laughs)

Stiller: I was hovering, it was Dudley Moore and I wanted to hear what he was saying.  I worked in a camera store when I a teenager and I worked as an assistant scuba diving instructor in Massachusetts for a couple of summers, and it all helped me in my career.

I was just a bad student, I liked Archaeology and I was interested in maybe being an archaeologist but I was such a bad student with such bad grades that I wasn’t going to get into any good colleges so I fell back on acting.

Azaria: I was a bus boy as well and I was really good one yeah I knew what I was doing, I could clear a table really well, but I was so bored I would try on accents, I noticed that people would look through you if you just sounded like everyone else, but if I went are you finished with this?’ (in an Italian accent) they would take notice and say ‘where are you from?’ So I worked showbiz into the job somehow. 

My first was job was a bartender in LA, Ricardo Montalban was my first customer ‘scotch, little water’, but I have been fired from every job I have ever had besides acting.

Gervais: I worked in an office, I took notes.

- Ricky I'm Reading born and bred, still live there, do you come back to Reading often and do you discuss old haunts with the Reading contingent in Hollywood like Winslet.

Winslet (laughs) no no, I think she was born the other side of the tracks. I go back to Reading for funerals, more and more recently. I go back twice a year to see people still dotted around but only to visit family really.

Where did you used to go out there?

I didn't after dark obviously, it was like I Am Legend. We are actually in the middle of pre-production for a movie set in Reading, obviously we are not going to film it there it's too dangerous, we are filming in Hempstead (laughs) it's true. I had good times growing up, I enjoyed Reading and I got out when I was eighteen.

- The three of you are known as funny men so was it a riot on set and secondly were you distracted by Amy in those trousers?

Stiller: Yeah, I enjoyed the trousers I think she looked great in them and I was happy to be in scenes with her everyday she is great. We did laugh a lot and it was great to hang out with people that you admire. Ricky, of course, it's in his contract that he comes in for twelve hours does all of his work and that's it for all the two movies, how long were you there for a day? 

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